Good recipes for eggplant, butternutsquash, zucchini for baby?

Question

Hi All,

My daughter is doing fantastic with self-feeding (although she is still using the pincher grasp and not a spoon). For Fruit I feed her cubed watermelon, grapes, blueberries, plums, bananas, melon. For Protein she gets cubed cheeses, chicken, and ground beef. For veggies I've only cubed sweet potato, baked potato, and carrots. She loved veggies pureed but now wants nothing to do with that! I was thinking of veggies that I could cut that she could self feed. Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to cook and cube eggplant, butternut squash, and zucchini for baby? I don't have a steamer and i don't want to boil because i've heard it removes the nutrients.

Answer 1

my grandmother cuts a butternut squash in half, sprinkles with brown sugar and bakes.

Answer 2

i plan on "trying" to make my babies food when the time comes and i found what might turn our to be a cool site...wholesomebabyfood.com

like i said i havent actually tried recipes yet but it looks like it might be worth using their ideas/recipes...good luck

Answer 3

If you want to keep the health benefits of the oil you use start frying them with just a little water in the pan and then add the oil when the food is in the pan and don't overheat, or add the oil right at the end (there is a very posh french term for this but I forget what it is)

If you do boil you can always use the pot liquor to cook grains, or just stick it in a glass and have her drink it.  Bell peppers are another good match if you prefer lower acid.

Zuccini is really awesome stir-fried with some fresh tomatoes.  Add garlic, onions, and/or oregano if you choose.  

You can bake zuccini just cut it in half.

Grilled is nice.  Skewer rounds, stick them in a veggie grilling basket (a good investment) or just slice in half and grill.

Of course you also have zucchini cake and muffins, remember you don't have to add sugar.  You can add some pureed lentils to make it more nutritionally complete.

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Be cautious with eggplant, a lot of people react to it.  Definitly I would mix it with other foods so she hopefully doesn't eat nothing but eggplant.  Eggplant is part of the nightshade family (so are potatoes and tomatoes).  It is also related to tobacco.  

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Roast squash is always good.

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Rapini is awesome, as is asparagus.  Steam or pan fry (I cook everything with garlic)

Beans of any type (green beans, wax beans, snow peas, etc) just try to pull the strings out.

Broccoli trees, duh.

Bell peppers raw or blanched (or roasted).

Cauliflower is so good roasted, it is completely different than boiled/steamed

Also don't forget you can use "leaves" to wrap things up.  Use things you eat cold like lettuce to wrap up sandwich type fills.  Use spinach, kale, cabbage, grape leaves to wrap up cooked mixes that may include grains, ground meats, etc.